In July 2015, IDW Publishing began publishing a new Rom comic book series.[3]
On December 2015, it was announced that a live-action film version of Rom was in development by Hasbro Studios and Paramount.

Publication history

Toy

"Rom" was a toy co-created by Scott Dankman, Richard C. Levy, and Bryan L. McCoy (US Patent #4,267,551).[4][5] It was sold to Parker Brothers, and was the inspiration[2] for the comic book series Rom: Spaceknight. The toy was originally named COBOL, after the programming language, but was later changed to Rom, after ROM (read-only memory), by Parker Brothers executives.[2]

The toy set a precedent for the game publishing company, which up until that time had only ever produced board games. As this was a new venture for the company, and given that electronic toys were still very new, a decision was made to produce the figure as cheaply as possible. As a result, the final product had very few points of articulation, and twin red LEDs served as Rom's eyes instead of the originally envisioned green, which were more expensive to produce.[2]

Not long after its debut, Rom appeared in the corner box of the cover of Time magazine's December 10, 1979, issue.[6] It was featured in the interior article, "Those Beeping, Thinking Toys," which decried Rom's lack of articulation and predicted it would "end up among the dust balls under the playroom sofa."[7]

Rom was licensed to Palitoy in the United Kingdom to extend the "Space Adventurer" line of Action Man, appearing in their 1980 catalog.

Comic book series

To build interest in the toy, Parker Brothers licensed the character to Marvel Comics, which created a comic book featuring Rom. The comic expanded on the premise that Rom was a cyborg and gave him an origin, personality, set of supporting characters and villains, as well as interaction within the Marvel Universe. The comic was written by Bill Mantlo and initially illustrated by artist Sal Buscema.[8] Buscema stated in a 2010 interview, "I liked the character. And I liked what they did with it. I thought the concept was quite good. It was unique. It made it attractive to do. I almost hate to say this, but it was pretty easy to draw, too."[9] Buscema was the main artist for the series from its creation through 1984. Steve Ditko took over for the final two years of the original run.

Ultimately, the toy failed and only sold 200,000 to 300,000 units in the US, with creator McCoy blaming the failure on poor packaging and marketing.[2] Parker Brothers subsequently abandoned the line.

The comic book outlasted the toy which it was created to support. The series lasted for 75 issues (not including the four annual issues), from December 1979 to February 1986. Rom's regular encounters with mainstream heroes and villains established him as part of Marvel continuity.[10]

On May 7, 2016, having licensed the character from Parker Brothers' parent company, Hasbro, IDW Publishing debuted a brand new Rom #0 as part of Free Comic Book Day. The free issue serves as a prologue to a new ongoing series which began in July 2016.[11]

In the comic book, Rom is more than a simple cyborg, being originally from a utopian society on the planet Galador. The series details Rom's defeat of the invading Dire Wraith alien race, and the continuation of their battle on Earth and other planets.[10] Unlike the technologically advanced Galadorian civilization, the Dire Wraiths rely primarily on dark magic and their power to change their appearance.

Some years before Rom's arrival on Earth, Galador is threatened by a fleet of ships manned by the Dire Wraiths. Galador's ruler, the Prime Director, calls for volunteers to be transformed into Spaceknights, cyborg warriors that can defend the planet from the invaders. The volunteers are promised that their "humanity" (the body parts that would be removed to accommodate the bionic armor) would be preserved and restored to them after the danger was over.

Rom was the first to volunteer. He was transformed into a large, silver humanoid that at first glance appeared to be totally robotic. Rom was given Galador's greatest weapon, the Neutralizer, which on one setting could banish the Wraiths into the Limbo dimension forever. Inspired by his example, a total of 1,000 Galadorians volunteered and were transformed into Spaceknights, each with his or her own unique armor, powers and code names.[12]

The Spaceknights succeeded in stopping the Dire Wraith invasion, although Rom decided to follow the remnants of the fleet back to their home planet, Wraithworld, which orbited a black sun. The Dire Wraiths panicked, and after a futile counter-attack abandoned the planet and scattered throughout space.[13] Unable to stop Rom, the Dire Wraiths successfully used their sorcery to trick him into allowing their escape. Rom now felt responsible for spreading the Dire Wraiths' evil across the universe, and swore he would not reclaim his humanity until all Dire Wraiths had been vanquished. His fellow Spaceknights, including comrades Starshine and Terminator, swore the same oath and left Galador.[12]

Earthfall

Rom arrives on Earth 200 years later, and it is at this point that the Rom series begins. Landing near the fictional town of Clairton, in West Virginia, United States, Rom encounters Brandy Clark. After seeing Rom deal with the Dire Wraiths firsthand, the young woman comes to understand his mission and helps to hide Rom from prying eyes. This becomes necessary once Rom uses the Neutralizer in public, as witnesses only see a "killer robot" disintegrating innocents - they do not realize that Rom is in fact banishing Dire Wraiths in human form. In time, Steve Jackson helps Rom in his mission, but Brandy began to fall in love with the noble Rom thus Brandy's relationship with Steve was strained.[12]

During his time on Earth, Rom fights and banishes thousands of Dire Wraiths. The increasingly desperate Dire Wraiths create new foes for Rom, such as Firefall - a fusion of human and Spaceknight;[14] the sorcerous Hellhounds;[15] and robotic Watchwraiths.[16] Two of Rom's greatest foes are the aptly named Hybrid[17][18][19][20] (a hideous result of a union between Wraith and human), and Mentus (a suit of Spaceknight armor occupied by the dark side of the Prime Director's psyche).[21] Many other opponents were more traditional and hailed from the Marvel Universe proper, such as the Mad Thinker,[22] the Space Phantom,[23] and Galactus and his then-herald Terrax.[24][25] He encountered such heroes as the X-Men,[17][18]Power Man and Iron Fist,[26] the Fantastic Four,[27]Nova,[28] the Thing,[29] and the Hulk.[30] Rom was one of the many heroes transported into an arena in space for the Contest of Champions, though he was not chosen to participate.[31]

At one stage, Rom's war against the Dire Wraiths takes a turn for the worse - a new breed appeared on Earth, and appeared to be far deadlier than the first variety.[32] It is later revealed that these are females who rely on sorcery, as opposed to the weaker males who placed their faith in science. Unlike the males, the female Dire Wraiths chose not to act in secrecy and openly attack Clairton while Rom is away, killing everyone (including Steve and superhero ally the Torpedo) with the exception of Brandy. Furthermore, they attack S.H.I.E.L.D.'s mobile headquarters which gave Earth authorities clear evidence of the Dire Wraiths' existence and threat. The Dire Wraiths came into conflict with the Avengers[33][34] and the X-Men[35][36] as well. Rom manages to banish all Dire Wraiths on Earth to Limbo with the aid of his super-powered allies and members of the U.S. military.[37]

Endgame

Rom leaves Earth soon after the battle and returns to Galador. Unknown to Rom, Brandy had accidentally met the entity called the Beyonder, and Brandy asked to be transported to Galador.[38] The Beyonder complied and Brandy found herself on Galador, now a war-torn world occupied by a new generation of cyborg-Spaceknights. Created to defend Galador in the absence of the first Spaceknights, this next generation of cyborgs became corrupted by their power, and feeling superior to normal Galadorians, massacred the entire race.[39] In an act of sheer spite, the new Spaceknights destroyed the frozen remains of the originals. Rom arrived too late and could only save Brandy.[40] Enraged, Rom summoned the original Spaceknights and together they destroyed the traitors. Rom then made a surprising discovery - his original humanity persisted within the entombed body of Terminator. Reclaiming it, Rom became human again and finally admitted his love for Brandy. The two chose to remain on Galador, with the intent of repopulating the planet. The remaining Spaceknights, their humanity now lost, set out to explore the universe, except for a few others that remained on Galador to protect Rom and Brandy.[41]

During Rick Jones's wedding to Marlo Chandler, the human Rom returned to Earth, together with Brandy, as guests at the ceremony, and Rom greeted the Hulk with a friendly handshake.[42]

Spaceknights miniseries

In the Spaceknights miniseries (Oct. 2000 – Feb. 2001) written by Jim Starlin it is revealed that Rom took the name Artour (a reference to Brandy's love of Arthurian legends, and perhaps in memory of his own encounter with King Arthur's ghost)[43] and that he and Brandy had two sons.[44] Rom himself is not actually seen in the series, nor is he mentioned by that name or shown in his spaceknight form (no doubt to skirt the fact that Marvel no longer held the license from Parker Brothers, which had retained the copyrights on Rom's name and armored likeness); his ship is attacked off-panel just prior to the start of the story, with Rom himself missing and presumed dead.[44]

Hasbro Universe

Powers and abilities

Rom's armor was composed of the Galadorian metal plandanium. It is extremely durable, even going so far as to stand up to Wolverine'sadamantium claws. It was shown to be damaged from time to time, demonstrating that plandanium is not indestructible. The armor had self-repair capabilities, though it took several weeks to repair major damage. It provided him with superhuman strength, flight, and the ability to travel through space via backpack rockets. It allowed him to breathe in any atmosphere and survive in the vacuum of space. In Spaceknight form, Rom also did not need to eat or sleep. Controls near the torso allowed Rom to lower the armor's temperature to well below zero. The armor stored a "solar charge" that could be used as a weapon and could drain power sources by mere contact. It gave him the ability to summon three pieces of equipment stored in "subspace":

Neutralizer

Rom's primary weapon, which is designed to banish Dire Wraiths to Limbo by opening a dimensional portal. Unfortunately, the process leaves considerable waste material (ash, etc.) that makes it appear to an uninformed observer that the weapon kills its target. In addition, the Dire Wraiths unsuccessfully explored the possibility of examining the weapon to find some means of returning its victims to the normal dimension. This handheld weapon could fire energy beams that can be deadly at a high setting if Rom chose to select it and it can neutralize various forms of energy. This device was designed so that only Rom would be able to discharge it. The mutant Wolverine once tried to use the weapon and received a numbing blast of energy feedback.[18] Rom's Neutralizer would inspire a similar creation by the mutant Forge when the US government tasked him with constructing a weapon against the Wraith horde. Forge's neutralizer, for a time, cost Storm her mutant abilities.[45]

Analyzer

Allowed Rom to see shape-changing Dire Wraiths in their true form and could assess the energy and potential of any object/entity. It could be used on an item which represented a world, such as a globe, and would display lights corresponding to Dire Wraith infestations at that point on the planet. Unfortunately, the device resembles a handgun, and Dire Wraith imposters have taken advantage of this fact to fool others into thinking that Rom is attacking them. Rom once arranged an ally to have the equivalent kind of vision, but the Dire Wraiths counteracted that by magically blocking his mind from recognizing that particular visual data. Regardless, Rom allowed SHIELD to examine the Analyzer in hope of creating equivalent devices among the Spaceknight's human allies.

In the new "Rom" series by IDW, his energy Analyzer is represented as two red lenses mounted on his arms. The arms transform to reveal the lenses, which emit a red light when in operation.

Universal Translator

Allowed Rom to instantly learn the language of any creature, irrespective of their origin. This device was used to scan and store printed information from an encyclopedia in Rom's memory banks for future use.

In the IDW series, the Translator is not a separate piece of equipment, but a function of Rom himself. When he first speaks, he uses an alien language before shifting to English, seemingly mid-sentence.

Other versions

As Marvel Comics no longer possesses the licensing rights to Rom from Parker Brothers, the character is not allowed to appear in his armored form. Marvel has found ways to work around this dilemma.

In 2000, Marvel published a five-issue SpaceKnights series which featured a hero named Prince Tristan (codenamed "Liberator") in a redesigned version of Rom's armor. He fought alongside other SpaceKnights named after some of the more popular ones from the original series.

In the alternate world of Earth X, Rom had ironically been banished to Limbo and was battling against the very Dire Wraiths he had sent there. Rom was seen in human form wielding his Neutralizer and using his chest-plate as a shield. He was referred to only as "the Greatest Spaceknight."[47]

In The Avengers #12.1, the super-villain group, The Intelligencia, was seen working with a 'spaceknight' that had actually been a vessel for Ultron in his digital form, which he proceeds to reconstruct into his own likeness.[48]

Reprint controversies

Legal issues regarding the reprinting of Rom guest appearances in other comics have led to complications. Brief cameos such as a holographic version of the character appearing as a distraction in Uncanny X-Men #187 have remained intact as have the Rom entries in the Essential Marvel trade paperbacks for the original Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and its deluxe edition sequel. The cover of the Essential Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe removed Rom from the artwork used for the cover of the collection.

Several appearances by Rom have been outright omitted. Power Man and Iron Fist #73, which featured Rom was omitted from Essential Power Man and Iron Fist vol. 1, and similarly Marvel Two-in-One #99 was omitted from Essential Marvel Two-in-One vol. 4, while The Incredible Hulk: Regression trade paperback features a heavily edited version of The Incredible Hulk #296, removing Rom's entire appearance in the issue. Furthermore, Rom #72, which was a tie-in to the Secret Wars II series, was omitted from the Secret Wars II Omnibus.